Research Guides: EH 315: Professional Writing and Data Visualization: EH 315 Wells

For this assignment, you will use a nonprofit to target a specific audience.

Your goals (and deliverables) are below:

Choose and target a specific audience.
Find information about an organization or program and the problem it addresses.
Present information persuasively using visuals and text.
Use different genres and mediums to persuade and inform.
Integrate the branding (colors, for example) of an organization or program.

This guide will help you find information on the organization or program you’re fundraising for and the problem it addresses.

For this guide, I will use the following example: ¡HICA!, The Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama.

Nonprofit Research

Start on the organization's website! It should have an "About Us" page, a listing of programs, a directory, and financials.

Databases to try

Use keywords when searching these databases, as I did on the right.

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Publications covering a wide variety of academic disciplines. Includes peer-reviewed journals. Content from 1940 - present.
Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window
Covers a wide range of interdisciplinary fields; includes a broad array of social sciences journals. Content from 1983 - present.
PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Contains domestic and international citations, abstracts and some full text to book chapters, books, dissertations and journal articles dealing with psychology. Content from 1806 - present.

Need help?

If you need help, contact me and we can work over the phone or via Zoom.

Problem Research

Since I'm looking at HICA and Hispanic/Latinx issues in Alabama, I will search my keywords in a database.

I might want to concentrate on one of their programs, like their citizenship and immigration program. In that case, I would add an additional term.

If part of my argument is that a state benefits from having naturalized citizens, I can broaden the search. I searched google for government documents and found The Economic Benefits of Providing a Path to Earned Citizenship.

Using site:.gov or site:.org is also a great way to find statistics. For example, to locate statistics on the number of Latinos in food deserts in Alabama, a quick google search of food insecurity alabama site:.org OR site:.gov returned the website feedingamerica.org. From there, I discovered that 14% of Hispanic/Latinx people have food insecurity in Alabama. Randolph County has the most insecurity with 25%